Book review: Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

It took a long time to read this book, and yes, it means I wasn’t fascinated by it. To be honest, some parts of it tortured me and, after all, all I can say about it:

“You feel like silence.”

Though, the same words Veronica Roth used to underline the birth of romantic relationships between Cyra Noavek (MC) and her love interest, Akos Kereseth, for me “silence” means silence: that thing I couldn’t hear, understand and feel deeply.

Veronica Roth is the author of “Divergent” trilogy and, as a lot of other authors in this genre, like Suzanne Collins “The Hunger Games”, Lauren Oliver “Delirium”, she built a stunning world of future society. She has an essential talent as well: to shift the reader from whenever his reading takes place to a very realistic described fantastic world, where the story develops. I’d like to add to author’s bonus box that she invented a good plot, where I was glad to be carried away, and I enjoyed meeting with well-thought-out characters, BUT (there always will be “but”) despite this cocoon of virtual reality I could feel nothing about the story. Good mind work, bad emotional composition.

But let me describe you what about this book. Spoilers ahead.

Cyra Noavek is a teenage girl that has a cruel and despot brother, Ryzek Noavek. He rules the Shotet people on the Thuvhe planet.

There are oracles in their world, and they can predict fates. Ryzek is very concerned about his fate and wants to avoid it. Thus he kidnaps the rising oracle Eijen and his brother Akos.

“Life is long.

But the fates are certain”.

As every person on the planet has currentgift, Akos’ gift successfully neutralizes Cyra’s gift. Cyra is the source of pain: she feels physical pain by herself and can bring pain by touching others, but Akos can touch her and feel nothing because he’s able to ruin her currentgift.

Little by little Akos changes Cyra and ultimately destroys her loyalty to brother.

“It’s a strange thing to realize that your worst enemies can be loved by their families”.

After all, they’ve become a part of rebels to fight against Ryzek’s tyranny, and here the confrontation begins.

Shotet people live in a world of violence, and, not surprisingly, have a tradition to carve the mark on their hands for every death they were the cause of, so some people have no free space to carve these marks. Though this tradition means not bragging but a memory, it still seems like barbarity. There were so many bloody fights as if I read George R. R. Martin’s books. Sometimes I think that writers want to warn us that our future is about suffering and struggle. Despite this, I prefer to believe in the best outcome.

Carve the Mark is the first book in series, and I hope The Fates Divide will bring me more surprises. Since Veronica Roth is one of my favorite writers, I feel worried about every her book, and I wish all of them to have a spot on my bookshelves.